5(b) Related Tunings – DAAEAE - More Than Meets The Eye

DAAEAE is an unusual tuning, firstly because of the doubled A strings in the
bass. For Celtic guitarists, these unison strings help to create the drone of
the bagpipes which are pitched somewhere between A and Bb. The top 3
treble open
strings provide 1sts and 5ths only and so hammers and pull-offs to work nicely
against the drone. Finally, the D on the bass is the 4th which is perfect for
releasing the tension of the droning A strings.

However, the tuning offers some other surprises. Open tunings such as DADGAD
make it impossible to play the low D string in a chord alongside adjacent the
2nd/3rd and 4ths. Having the two unison A strings makes for some very
interesting chord ideas, especially when plucking through the notes to form a
melody. The idea is to use one of the open A strings, and to fret notes on the
next one to create small intervals in the bass.

The tuning offers great new ideas for DADGAD, CGCGCD players and calls for an
extra creativity to break away from the heavy drone of the A strings. Below is a
collection of chord charts and two scale charts to open ideas on the tuning.
Note the clarity of the top three treble strings when playing melodies, and how
sweet they sound against the depth of the bass notes. When looking for more
interesting bass notes to add movement to a tune, try substituting 2nd and 4th
fret notes for the obvious notes.